Primary graft dysfunction (PGD) is a principal cause of early morbidity and mortality after lung transplantation, but its pathogenic mechanisms are not fully clarified. Thus far, studies using standard clinical assays have not linked microbial factors to PGD. We previously used comprehensive metagenomic methods to characterize viruses in lung allografts >1 month post-transplant and found that levels of Anellovirus, mainly Torque teno viruses (TTV), were significantly higher than in non-transplant healthy controls...

INTRODUCTION: Exergames require body movement to play and may be an effective method for enhancing teen physical activity (PA). However, results have been mixed. Innovative methods are needed to develop Exergames that increase and maintain PA. Self-representational avatars, or avatars created from a digital image of an individual, may increase PA (e.g., intensity, duration) during Exergame play. This article addresses this novel idea by describing the development of an Exergame played with a self-representational avatar...

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disorder most commonly associated with repetitive traumatic brain injury (TBI) and characterized by the presence of neurofibrillary tangles of tau protein, known as a tauopathy. Currently, the diagnosis of CTE can only be definitively established postmortem. However, a new positron emission tomography (PET) ligand, [(18)F]T807/AV1451, may provide the antemortem detection of tau aggregates, and thus various tauopathies, including CTE. Our goal was to examine [(18)F]T807/AV1451 retention in athletes with neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with a history of multiple concussions...

The high liquid content in fruit and vegetable wastes makes it convenient to mechanically separate these wastes into mostly liquid and solid fractions by means of pretreatment. Then, the liquid fraction can be treated using a high rate anaerobic biofilm reactor to produce biogas, simultaneously reducing the amount of solids that must be landfilled. In this work, the specific composition of municipal solid waste in a public market was determined; then, the sorted organic fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) was treated mechanically to separate and characterize the mostly liquid and solid fractions...

The epigenetic inheritance of DNA methylation requires UHRF1, a histone- and DNA-binding RING E3 ubiquitin ligase that recruits DNMT1 to sites of newly replicated DNA through ubiquitylation of histone H3. UHRF1 binds DNA with selectivity towards hemi-methylated CpGs (HeDNA); however, the contribution of HeDNA sensing to UHRF1 function remains elusive. Here, we reveal that the interaction of UHRF1 with HeDNA is required for DNA methylation but is dispensable for chromatin interaction, which is governed by reciprocal positive cooperativity between the UHRF1 histone- and DNA-binding domains...

This study conducted a preliminary examination on cognitive reserve (CR) as a modifier of symptom expression in subjects with autopsy-confirmed chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The sample included 25 former professional football players neuropathologically diagnosed with CTE stage III or IV. Next of kin interviews ascertained age at cognitive and behavioral/mood symptom onset and demographic/athletic characteristics. Years of education and occupational attainment defined CR. High occupational achievement predicted later age at cognitive (p=0...

AIMS: Internalization of extracellular fluid and its solute by macropinocytosis requires dynamic reorganization of actin cytoskeleton, membrane ruffling, and formation of large endocytic vacuolar compartments, called macropinosomes, inside the cell. Although instigators of macropinocytosis, such as growth factors and phorbol esters, stimulate NADPH oxidase (Nox) activation and signal transduction mediators upstream of Nox assembly, including Rac1 and protein kinase C (PKC), are involved in macropinocytosis, the role of Nox enzymes in macropinocytosis has never been investigated...

Professional American football players incur thousands of repetitive head impacts (RHIs) throughout their lifetime. The long-term consequences of RHI are not well characterized, but may include olfactory dysfunction. RHI has been associated with changes to brain regions involved in olfaction, and olfactory impairment is common after traumatic brain injury. Olfactory dysfunction is a frequent early sequelae of neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Alzheimer's disease), and RHI is associated with the neurodegenerative disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)...

Vulvar cancer accounts for approximately 4% of gynecological malignancies. At the Instituto Nacional de Cancerologia in Mexico it occupies the fourth place. The purpose of this study is to assess the management of squamous carcinoma of the vulva with initial surgical treatment. It is a descriptive retrospective, observational study, from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2012. Twenty-seven patients, clinical stages I, II, or III, initial surgical management, with at least one year of follow-up were included. In 51...

UNLABELLED: For over a century, a fundamental objective in infection biology research has been to understand the molecular processes contributing to the origin and perpetuation of epidemics. Divergent hypotheses have emerged concerning the extent to which environmental events or pathogen evolution dominates in these processes. Remarkably few studies bear on this important issue. Based on population pathogenomic analysis of 1,200 Streptococcus pyogenes type emm89 infection isolates, we report that a series of horizontal gene transfer events produced a new pathogenic genotype with increased ability to cause infection, leading to an epidemic wave of disease on at least two continents...

ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels play fundamental roles in the regulation of endocrine, neural and cardiovascular function. Small-molecule inhibitors (e.g., sulfonylurea drugs) or activators (e.g., diazoxide) acting on SUR1 or SUR2 have been used clinically for decades to manage the inappropriate secretion of insulin in patients with Type 2 diabetes, hyperinsulinism and intractable hypertension. More recently, the discovery of rare disease-causing mutations in KATP channel-encoding genes has highlighted the need for new therapeutics for the treatment of certain forms of neonatal diabetes mellitus, congenital hyperinsulinism and Cantu syndrome...

BACKGROUND: Gangliosides are biological glycolipids participating in rafts, structural and functional domains of cell membranes. Their headgroups are able to assume different conformations when packed on the surface of an aggregate, more lying or standing. Switching between different conformations is possible, and is a collective event. Switching can be induced, in model systems, by concentration or temperature increase, then possibly involving ganglioside-water interaction. In the present paper, the effect of GM1 ganglioside headgroup conformation on the water structuring and interactions is addressed...

Targeting of Wnt signaling represents a promising anti-cancer therapy. However, the consequences of systemically attenuating the Wnt pathway in an adult organism are unknown. Here, we globally prevent Wnt secretion by genetically ablating Wntless. We find that preventing Wnt signaling in the entire body causes mortality due to impaired intestinal homeostasis. This is caused by the loss of intestinal stem cells. Reconstitution of Wnt/β-catenin signaling via delivery of external Wnt ligands prolongs the survival of intestinal stem cells and reveals the essential role of extra-epithelial Wnt ligands for the renewal of the intestinal epithelium...

One of the largest river systems in South Africa, the Olifants River, has experienced significant changes in water quality due to anthropogenic activities. Since 2005, there have been various "outbreaks" of the inflammatory disease pansteatitis in several vertebrate species. Large-scale pansteatitis-related mortality events have decimated the crocodile population at Lake Loskop and decreased the population at Kruger National Park. Most pansteatitis-related diagnoses within the region are conducted post-mortem by either gross pathology or histology...

Neutron scattering techniques have been employed to investigate 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn -glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) membranes in the form of multilamellar vesicles (MLVs) and deposited, stacked multilamellar-bilayers (MLBs), covering transitions from the gel to the liquid phase. Neutron diffraction was used to characterise the samples in terms of transition temperatures, whereas elastic incoherent neutron scattering (EINS) demonstrates that the dynamics on the sub-macromolecular length-scale and pico- to nano-second time-scale are correlated with the structural transitions through a discontinuity in the observed elastic intensities and the derived mean square displacements...

INTRODUCTION: This study aims to identify the causes for the incomplete donation process at a tertiary care hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A descriptive, retrospective study was performed; all potential donors reported to the Transplant Service within the period of 2005 to 2014 were included. Descriptive statistics were used across frequencies and proportions for categorical variables, central tendency, and dispersion for continuous variables. RESULTS: The total number of deaths reported at the University Hospital (HU) was 8472, of which 815 (n = 815) were reported to COETRA ("Consejo Estatal de Trasplantes")...